Sunday, 23 September 2012

Mary Berry’s Apple Pie- Guest Post by Hannah Wood :-) [How To Make]

This is another exciting first for my Did Somebody Say Pudding? After getting very excited seeing my friend Hannah on FB making a yummy looking Mary Berry pudding, I asked her if she would like to do a guest blog for me. A lovely way of getting a different perspective and spicing up my blog a bit! Luckily she said yes and this is her finished review! ENJOY!

AMY X

Date: 22/9/12

Background: As the apple tree in my garden was looking a bit full, I decided to make a pudding using my (mothers) own home grown. I always make a crumble with these apples so decided on trying something different. As I am totally obsessed with Great British Bake-Off, I dug out one of my Mary Berry cookbooks and found a very easy recipe for Apple Pie.. Bingo!

To make the Pastry. Measure the flour, butter and caster sugar in to a processor and whiz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and water and whiz again until it forms a ball. The dough will weigh 450g. Divide the pastry into 250g and 200g pieces.

Roll out the 250g piece very thinly and line the base of the dish, including the sides and leave a little over hang.

Mix the sliced apples with the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, spoon them into the base of the dish. The apples will be higher than the pastry as they will sink down during cooking.

Roll out the remaining pastry slightly bigger than the surface of the dish. Brush the edges of the pastry with water then sit the pastry on top and gently push down to seal the edges. Using a small sharp knife trim the edge and crimp the sides. Roll out any left over pastry and use for decoration. Brush the pie with beaten egg.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

Remove from the oven and cool a little before sprinkling with a little extra caster sugar. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice cream!

What was Good: The recipe is very simple and doesn't take long to make at all. As I haven't quite entered the 21st century yet I made the pastry using my hands, an extra personal touch! The pastry was the nicest I have ever made; I've never used egg before and I believe this gave it the extra something. The cinnamon also gave the apples a lovely extra kick.

What was Bad: The recipe didn't say to cook the apples slightly before; I would definitely recommend doing this because after the cooking time, they were still a little hard. It also didn't recommend a blind bake before the filling; therefore once it was cooked, the bottom was so soggy and actually started to disintegrate! It might as well of not had a base at all; I don't think Mary or Paul would be impressed!